This is a thread specifically for Republicans and conservatives on this forum.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense that just about every one of you really don't like Mitt Romney as a Presidential candidate against Obama. That may not be universally true of all of you folks, but I'd think it's true of much of you, if not nearly all of you.

At the same time, outside of the minority of you who were big on Ron Paul, Romney was unquestionably the best candidate for your party out of the primaries, was he not? At least among the people who were doing anything in the polls. Santorum led at one point, as did Michelle Bachmann but I think all the DC conservatives here hate both. I don't think a single one of you have an ounce of respect for Newt Gingrich or Herman Cain as POTUS candidates (my apologies if you actually do). And Rick Perry was... well, Rick Perry.

Yes, I know most of you would prefer almost all those folks to Obama, but that doesn't change the fact that this seemed like a particularly weak crop.

I am not a conservative or a Republican, but I think compared to previous primary fields for your party, this was a very weak cycle in terms of POTUS candidates.

My question is -- why do you think that is? Why do you think we had such a weak crop of POTUS candidates for your party?

Because right now, it really does seem like the GOP has a deeper bench of people that have Presidential timber than do the Democrats, who outside of Obama and Hillary Clinton, don't really have much of a bench at all. And yet... these candidates didn't seem to have their shit together.

I'm just interested in picking your brains. I'm not even remotely interested in debating or arguing, just wanted to see what your points of view on the subject might be.

Kennedy, Scalia, Ginsberg, and Breyer are all in their mid- to late- 70's, so, although as far as I know none of them have mentioned any plans, any or all of them is possible. The rest of the court are Roberts, Thomas, and Alito (all conservative), and Sotomayor and Kagan (both liberal). The answer, then, is yes, there could be a major court swing this coming four years, one way or the other.

Which is why everyone here should vote, whichever way you lean, and the encourage - nay, compel - your friends and family to also vote.

Thanks I got off my Lazy butt and looked it up. On this we agree, vote. Sadly most of my friends lean politically far left of where I do but not surprisingly a civil discussion of ideas more easily happens in person than behind a computer screen.

The time to decide to run for POTUS is at least 2 years before. 2 years ago, nearly all GOP presidential aspirants concluded that Obama would be nearly impossible to beat because he would raise a lot of grass roots money and would have hired a lot of talented people to run his campaign.

They also figured that there would be enough economic recovery to further make Obama unbeatable.

To me, it is surprising that no other candidates joined in after the 2010 midterms. Maybe they figured that the GOP gains were due to the mediscare tactics they used in regards Obamacare and they figured that would not work again if Obama had a chance to respond.

Paul Ryan tried to play that mediscare trick and this time it blew up and he has built a reputation for not being truthful.

Romney was the only viable one who wanted the GOP nomination and he caught some breaks that made Obama beatable, the global economic problems and the impact on the economy due to the debt ceiling debate and crises in other nations' economies.

Even though Obama looked more beatable at times recently, none of the ones who did not run this time are regretting their decision. Their expectations that Obama's team would run an excellent campaign and be hard to beat are seeming accurate.

The problem with the GOP now is that their extremists have more power within the party and the GOP brand has lost its lustre.

Also, independent voters know the recent history of GOP policies and that it is not fair to blame Obama for a slow recovery when the GOP is on record saying that they want so much to defeat Obama that they will put that as a higher priority than taking action to boost the economy.

I definetly stick with my Rick Perry pick. He is a Texan, has big money backers, he is godfearing, salt of the earth type of man who loves god and believes in the american dream. He might be a lousy candidate but that hasn't stopped Romney from maybe becoming president.

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You ever notice how on stop lights, green means go, but on a banana it's the opposite? Yellow means "go ahead." Green means "slow down." And red means "Where the **** did you get that banana?"

What does it have to do with? I haven't heard a single, unified thought from the Romney campaign. I haven't heard any strategies of any kind, unless you call multiple gaffes a strategy.

All I've heard is that he's the Anti-Obama. Well, the S&P 500 broke records today, housing is up, the market's at an all time high, we're out of Iraq, we're close on Afghanistan, Bin Laden's dead - why should I vote for Romney?